Tag: dining reviews
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Luigi’s has kept a good thing going for 50 years
Sometimes it’s been months. Sometimes it has been years, but every time I walk through the door of Luigi’s – Colorado Springs’ definitive Italian restaurant – it feels like I was just there yesterday.Nothing has changed. Not the red-andwhite checkered tablecloths on the tiny tables. Not the dusty Chianti bottles hung on the walls. And…
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La Baguette is love at first sight
I ate the snails. When I went to review La Baguette Bakery for its 25th anniversary, I realized I’d been snacking on the same few favorites off the menu for the majority of those 25 years. Like most La Baguette regulars (and as a friend recently told me, “If you’re not a regular you either…
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At Bayou BarBQ sides stand up to yummy main dishes
At barbecue joints – even really good ones – the magic usually stops at the meat.The pit master might fret over the pedigree of hardwood coals and fine-tune the heat like a Stradivarius, but the stuff on the side often has a thrown-together feel: beans or peach cobbler gooey with corn syrup, coleslaw that would…
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La’au’s unusual creations wrap up world’s best flavors
La’au’s Taco Shop has a simple, catchy concept: Take the tried-and-true soft taco and dress it in a Pan-Pacific pile of goodies such as peanut- and miso-marinated grilled chicken with cool green papaya, or mahi-mahi seared with cumin and pepper and tucked under springy napa cabbage with a golden crown of mango.The unlikely pairings are…
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Manitou Pancake House – is it just for tourists?
The Manitou Pancake House? That place is for tourists,” a friend and longtime Manitou Springs local told me when she declined an invitation to go there with me for breakfast.That certainly is the reputation for the place. In the summer, when the RVs roll in, the parking lot is full. In winter, spots are always…
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La Zingara in Palmer Lake
La Zingara in Palmer Lake is a perfect example of the old standby — that restaurant, more familiar than fancy — that you end up going to again and again because it is delicious but not too spendy, comfortable, and dependable enough that you know it will deliver for all those minor celebrations that punctuate…
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BJ’s Velvet Freez – frozen in time in Colorado Springs
The best time to visit BJ’s Velvet Freez has always been on a hot summer night when the crickets chirp in concert with the rattling mufflers along Union Boulevard, the stark glare of the fluorescent bulbs lighting the old drive-in and making everything look like an Edward Hopper painting. In the heat, only the most…
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Dining review: Wines of Colorado creates an unrivaled atmosphere
Wines of Colorado, a cool little restaurant and tasting room at the base of the Pikes Peak Highway in Cascade, causes almost everyone driving by to do a double take. After all, “wine” and “Colorado” are not two words most people put together. It’s a bit like ski resorts in Kentucky. Most people are surprised…
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La Carreta’s Mexican dishes worthy of gathering
There are good signs and bad signs when you walk into an unfamiliar ethnic restaurant for the first time.If you can pronounce everything on the menu, that’s probably a bad sign.If they sell anything by the scoop, that’s probably a bad sign.If you sit down hoping for something truly authentic and your server’s name is…
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Sandy’s Restaurant has old-fashioned goodness
Since 1972, Sandy’s Restaurant has been the place on the edge of Colorado Springs, where two lonely prairie highways meet, and ranchers sip coffee and talk cattle after a trip into town.A lot has changed over the decades. Sandy’s is now surrounded by defense contractors and an Air Force base instead of wind-tusseled grass. Its…